Instant message contact management in a contact center

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to a method for servicing a transaction in a contact center. When an instant message communication associated with a transaction is suspended prematurely, special treatment may be provided to the transaction initiator. The special treatment includes: (a) maintaining the assigned service priority for the transaction for assignment to a subsequent communication; (b) scheduling a subsequent outbound instant message to an external endpoint associated with the transaction initiator; (c) assigning to the transaction initiator a favored service priority when the subsequent inbound instant message is received by the contact center; and (d) maintaining previously selected item(s) in memory and providing the item(s) to the transaction initiator in a subsequent communication.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/776,013, filed May 7, 2010, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/778,960, filed Feb. 12, 2004,entitled “Post Termination Contact Management”, which is incorporatedherein by this reference.

The subject matter of the present application is related to copendingU.S. application Ser. No. 09/489,722, filed Jan. 24, 2000, entitled“Automated Transaction Distribution System and Method Allowing Selectionof Agents by Transaction Initiators” to Thomson et al., and U.S.application Ser. No. 10/778,656, filed Feb. 12, 2004, entitled“Transitory Contact Management” to Thomson et al., each of which isincorporated herein by this reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to automated transaction distributionsystems and specifically to contact centers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Automated transaction distribution systems use automated procedures todistribute transactions to available agents employed to handle thetransactions. According to the automated procedures, an attempt is madeto match a transaction to the best-qualified agent having the skills tohandle the particular requirements of the transaction. In performing thematch, transactions are often placed in queues, which are serviced byspecific groupings of agents. Although numerous algorithms have beendeveloped to control the wait times for enqueued transactions to receiveservice, it is not unusual for wait times to be on the order of 10 to 20minutes.

The widespread use of wireless communication devices, such as cellularphones, have created a number of problems for contact centers. Users ofsuch devices are typically charged based on air time. The longer awireless contact remains in queue, the more air time minutes that areconsumed, with a concomitant increase in the cost to the customerassociated with the interaction with the contact center. These costshave led many users to abandon the contact when the wait time reaches aperceived level of unacceptability. Wireless communication device usersalso experience disconnects as a result of service disruptions (e.g.,dead zones, cell transitions, etc.). When contacts are dropped, thecontactor must call-back into the contact center and end up beingre-queued. The re-queuing or “starting over” can lead to furtherincreases in the air time minutes required to interact with the contactcenter. Finally, many wireless contacts encounter poor call qualitywhile waiting in queue. When the contact is ultimately serviced, thepoor call quality can detrimentally impact the ability of the contactcenter to provide satisfactory service.

Although some contact centers permit an enqueued contact to “opt out”under specified circumstances, the contact centers wait for the call tobe delivered to the agent before calling back the caller. Such callcenter products are offered by Genesys and Zeacom. These products allowa caller to maintain his or her place in queue and have the system callthe caller back once the call is delivered to the agent. The productsvirtually maintain the caller's place in queue without the caller havingto be physically connected. The failure to synchronize the initiation ofthe call-back with the agent being ready to service the call canunnecessarily tie up contact center resources, such as the servicingagent, waiting for the customer to answer the call and lengthen the timerequired for the customer to receive service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These and other needs are addressed by the various embodiments andconfigurations of the present invention. The present invention relatesgenerally to a method and system for providing transaction initiators orwork requestors with special treatment in the event that the contactwith the transaction initiators is disconnected before the contact isserviced or during servicing of the contact by a contact center resource(or the contact is a transitory contact). As used herein, a “transitorycontact” refers to a contact on any channel using any medium that isdisconnected before delivery to an agent for servicing, and a“transaction” refers generally to an interaction with a contact centerresource. Typically, the transaction is an item of business, such as thetaking and processing of an order, providing product-related assistance,providing personal financial information, providing billing information,scheduling product service, and the like. A “transaction initiator”refers to an entity, such as a human or computational component, thatinitiates or causes the initiation of a transaction.

In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a method forservicing a transaction in a contact center. When a communicationassociated with a transaction is disconnected prematurely, specialtreatment may be provided to the transaction initiator. The specialtreatment includes: (a) maintaining, relative to other transactions, theassigned service priority for the transaction while the communication isdisconnected and assigning the assigned service priority to a subsequentinbound communication from the transaction initiator; (b) scheduling asubsequent outbound communication to an external endpoint associatedwith the transaction initiator; (c) assigning to the transactioninitiator a favored service priority when the subsequent inboundcommunication is received by the contact center; and (d) when, duringthe first (or prior) communication, the transaction initiator selectedat least one item as part of an electronic order and the firstcommunication was disconnected before the electronic order wascompleted, maintaining the item(s) in memory and providing the item(s)to the transaction initiator when the transaction initiator makes afurther communication with the contact center.

Rather than waiting for service while connected or the customer isonline, the present invention allows the transaction initiator to waitfor a service priority to be assigned and then disconnect. Thetransaction will not lose the assigned service priority (e.g., queueposition) during or after the disconnect or state change. Thetransaction initiator may reconnect at a later time and check thecurrent status of the transaction. If the transaction will be waitinglonger, the transaction initiator can disconnect again and reconnect orgo online at a later time. Alternatively, the transaction initiator canelect to wait for the agent after reconnection or online resumption. Ineither case, the contact manager maintains the transaction initiator'sassigned priority so that the transaction initiator does not losehis/her “place in line.” Alternatively, the transaction initiator canelect to forfeit his or her right to receive special treatment. If thetransaction initiator is not connected or online at the time that thetransaction is ready to be handled by the agent, the transactioninitiator may be called back or the transaction set aside until thetransaction initiator reconnects or goes online. After the transactioninitiator reconnects or goes online, the transaction can be handledbased on the agent's availability (e.g., workload criteria) and thetransaction's priority relative to other transaction that have been setaside.

The work item or transaction can be a communication received on anychannel and/or communication medium. The channel/communication mediumused by the contact refers to a communication technique, pathway, ormethod as defined, governed, or enabled by one or more selectedprotocols (e.g., a packet-based protocol such as TCP/IP, RTP, and RTCP,an asynchronous transfer mode protocol, and a frame relay protocol or acircuit-switched protocol), algorithms (e.g., software applications,such as E-mail, Web browsers, instant messaging, text chat, IntegratedServices Digital Network or ISDN, QSIG, DPNSS, SIP, H.323, VDP, andSGCP, etc.) switches or routers, and/or communication medium (e.g.,twisted wire, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, wireless, cellular, andPCS™ of U.S. Sprint). For example, voice-only wired telephonecommunications over the PSTN represent one channel, voice-over-IPtelephony yet another channel, voice-only wireless telephonecommunications a further channel, non-voice IP telephony (e.g., a textweb chat) a further channel, multi-media telephony (e.g., a video call)over the PSTN a further channel, instant messaging over the data networka further channel, a Web conference over the Internet a further channel,etc.

The transaction initiator may be a customer or some other type ofnonsubscriber. As discussed in the parent application, the contactcenter can, in one embodiment, be configured to permit a transactioninitiator to select an agent to service their respective transactionbased on agent information, which may include agent attributes (e.g., anagent identifier, a listing of agent skills, a listing of agent skillproficiency levels, a listing of agent personalbackground/characteristics, a listing of agents who backup an agent, andan agent/transaction initiator transaction history, etc.), agentavailability (e.g., a listing of transactions currently queued to anagent, time until agent availability, etc.), and other criteria. Theagents may be human agents or automated agents.

The assigned service priority can be one or more of a queue position orslot, an arrival or receipt time of the communication, a current orestimated wait time, a target service time, predicted business valuebased on discernable transaction properties, and the like.

The termination of the communication may be initiated by the transactioninitiator or contact center. It may be voluntary or involuntary. Forexample, the termination may be the result of an excessive orunacceptable wait time, a loss of or dropped connection, poor quality ofcontact, low QoS, or endpoint or intermediate node or link malfunctions,a decision that servicing is not required at the present time or ever,contact center workflow levels, agent availability, conservation oflimited communication resources, and the like.

The decision whether or not to grant special treatment may be madeuniversally or on a work item-by-work item basis. In the latter case,the decision is typically based on a weighting of a number of criteria,including contactor or transaction initiator information, contact centerdestination of the communication, the channel used for thecommunication, the communication medium used for the communication, aninformation identifier digit (e.g., identifying a cell phone, pay phone,etc.) received during set up of the communication, a contact Quality ofService metric for the communication and contact center state (e.g.,workflow level, agent availability level, current or expected waittimes, etc.). For example, when a high valued customer has a transitorycontact a call-back may be scheduled regardless of the channel, calleddestination, II digits, or QoS. When a transitory contact channel suchas a wireless cellular phone or instant messaging session has one ormore QoS characteristics outside of selected quality (acceptable)thresholds, special treatment may be provided to the contactorregardless of the customer information or called destination, based onthe assumption that the termination was involuntary or voluntary due tothe poor quality of the connection. As will be appreciated, the reasonsfor disconnection by the contactor include, without limitation,excessive wait time, loss of connection, poor quality of contact,decision that servicing is not required at the present time or ever,cost of call, remaining (low) battery life of cellular phone, and thelike.

Embodiments of the present invention can have numerous advantages overthe prior art. For example, users of wireless devices can have thefreedom to abandon voluntarily expensive contacts or contacts of poorquality without sacrificing their previously assigned servicingpriorities. Through maintenance of assigned priorities, users ofwireless devices are also not penalized for an involuntary loss ofconnection, such as commonly occurs when the cellular network drops aconnection or a network bandwidth shortage interferes with an instantmessaging session. Embodiments of the present invention can schedulecall-backs before the agent is available for servicing of the outboundcontact, thereby avoiding unnecessary tie ups of contact centerresources, such as the servicing agent, while waiting for the customerto answer the call or respond to an instant message and shortening thetime required for the customer to receive service. This is made possibleby providing the contact center with sufficient intelligence to estimatewhen an agent will be available to handle the contact and to contact thecustomer again when the agent is expected to be available within a short(or predetermined) period of time or when the virtual queue positionassigned to the first communication reaches a selected queue position.Embodiments of the present invention can avoid the placement bycustomers of multiple contacts over VoIP, cellular phone, and othercommunication channels, leading to customer frustration. When multipleunsuccessful and low QoS contacts are made by a customer on the same ordifferent communication channels within a defined period of time, theservice priority of the transaction common to the various contactattempts can be elevated to a level higher than that of other, lessfrequent low QoS contacts by other customers.

These and other advantages will be apparent from the disclosure of theinvention(s) contained herein.

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material”.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage and/or transmission medium that participate inproviding instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium maytake many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media,volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, forexample, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includesdynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readablemedia include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, aCD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any otherphysical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, aFLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memorychip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. A digital file attachment toe-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, itis to be understood that the database may be any type of database, suchas relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like.Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangible storagemedium or distribution medium and prior art-recognized equivalents andsuccessor media, in which the software implementations of the presentinvention are stored.

The term “contact” refers to any voice, text, and/or video electroniccommunication, such as a voice call, E-mail, instant message, text chat,and VoIP call.

The term “customer” denotes a party external to the contact centerirrespective of whether or not that party is a “customer” in the senseof having a commercial relationship with the contact center or with abusiness represented by the contact center. “Customer” is thus ashorthand, as used in contact center terminology, for the other party toa contact or a communications session.

The terms “determine”, “calculate” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The terms “instant message” and “instant messaging” refer to a form ofreal-time text communication between two or more people, typically basedon typed text. The instant message is conveyed by an instant messagingprogram offered by a service, such as AOL™, MSN Messenger™, Yahoo!Messenger™, Live Messenger™, and Apple's iChat™. Generally included inthe instant messaging software is the ability to see the presence ofanother party; that is, the ability to see whether a chosen friend,co-worker or other selected person (known as a “buddy”) is online andconnected through the selected service. Instant messaging differs fromordinary e-mail in the immediacy of the message exchange and also makesa continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth. Instantmessaging, unlike e-mail, is also generally stateless. Most exchangesare text-only, though some services now allow voice messaging, filesharing and even video chat (when both users have cameras). For instantmessaging to work, both users must be online at the same time and theintended recipient must be willing to accept instant messages. Anattempt to send an instant message to someone who is not online (or isoffline), or who is not willing to accept instant messages, will resultin a notification that the transmission cannot be completed. If theonline software is set to accept instant messages, it alerts therecipient with a distinctive sound and provides a window thatcollectively indicates that an instant message has arrived. The windowallows the recipient to accept or reject the incoming instant message.An instant message session is deemed to disconnect, or be disconnected,when the user goes offline, refuses to accept an instant message, or issuspended by the user failing to respond to an instant message after apredetermined period of time after an instant message is sent and/orreceived. An instant message session is deemed to be reconnected (or acall-back deemed to occur) when the user resumes the instant messagingsession, such as by responding to an outstanding instant message.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the invention isdescribed in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat individual aspects of the invention can be separately claimed.

The term “switch” or “server” as used herein should be understood toinclude a PBX, an ACD, an enterprise switch, or other type oftelecommunications system switch or server, as well as other types ofprocessor-based communication control devices such as media servers,computers, adjuncts, etc.

The term “VoIP” refers to a family of transmission technologies fordelivering packetized voice communications over IP networks such as theInternet or other packet-switched networks, rather than the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN). Other terms frequently encounteredand synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voiceover broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone. Commonprotocols for VoIP include H.323 and the Session Initiation Protocol.

The preceding is a simplified summary of the invention to provide anunderstanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is neitheran extensive nor exhaustive overview of the invention and its variousembodiments. It is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention but topresent selected concepts of the invention in a simplified form as anintroduction to the more detailed description presented below. As willbe appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possibleutilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features setforth above or described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a contact center according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a server according to an embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting an operational embodiment of thecontact manager.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will be illustrated below in conjunction with an exemplarycommunication system. Although well suited for use with, e.g., a systemhaving an ACD or other similar contact processing switch, the inventionis not limited to use with any particular type of communication systemswitch or configuration of system elements. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that the disclosed techniques may be used in anycommunication application in which it is desirable to provide improvedcontact processing. By way of example, the invention can be used with aninstant-messaging capable contact center to inform the contact center ofa probability that an instant messaging session has been interrupted bylink, network, endpoint, or Quality of Service (QoS) problems.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Acontact center 100 comprises a central server 110, a set of data storesor databases 114 containing contact or customer related information andother information that can enhance the value and efficiency of thecontact, and a plurality of servers, namely a voice mail server 126, anInteractive Voice Response unit or IVR 122, and other servers 124, anoutbound dialer 128, a switch 130, a plurality of working agentsoperating packet-switched (first) telecommunication devices 134-1 to N(such as computer work stations or personal computers), and/orcircuit-switched (second) telecommunication devices 138-1 to M, allinterconnected by a local area network LAN (or wide area network WAN)142. The servers can be connected via optional communication lines 146to the switch 130. As will appreciated, the other servers 124 can alsoinclude a scanner (which is normally not connected to the switch 130 orWeb server), VoIP software, video call software, voice messagingsoftware, an IP voice server, a fax server, a web server, an instantmessaging server, and an email server) and the like. The switch 130 isconnected via a plurality of trunks 150 to the Public SwitchTelecommunication Network or PSTN 154 and via link(s) 152 to the secondtelecommunication devices 138-1 to M. A gateway 158 is positionedbetween the server 110 and the packet-switched network 162 to processcommunications passing between the server 110 and the network 162.

Referring to FIG. 2, one possible configuration of the server 110 isdepicted. The server 110 is in communication with a plurality ofcustomer communication lines 200 a-y (which can be one or more trunks,phone lines, etc.) and agent communication line 204 (which can be avoice-and-data transmission line such as LAN 142 and/or a circuitswitched voice line 140). The server 110 can include a Basic CallManagement System or BCMS (not shown) and a Call Management System orCMS (not shown) that gathers call records and contact-center statisticsfor use in generating contact-center reports.

The switch 130 and/or server 110 can be any architecture for directingcontacts to one or more telecommunication devices. Illustratively, theswitch and/or server can be a modified form of the subscriber-premisesequipment disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,192,122; 6,173,053; 6,163,607;5,982,873; 5,905,793; 5,828,747; and 5,206,903, all of which areincorporated herein by this reference; Avaya Inc.'s Definity™Private-Branch Exchange (PBX)-based ACD system; MultiVantage™ PBX, CRMCentral 2000 Server™, Communication Manager™, Business Advocate™, CallCenter™, Contact Center Express™, Interaction Center™, and/or S8300™,S8400™, S8500™, and S8700™ servers; or Nortel's Business CommunicationsManager Intelligent Contact Center™, Contact Center—Express™, ContactCenter Manager Server™, Contact Center Portfolio™, and Messaging 100/150Basic Contact Center™. Typically, the switch/server is astored-program-controlled system that conventionally includes interfacesto external communication links, a communications switching fabric,service circuits (e.g., tone generators, announcement circuits, etc.),memory for storing control programs and data, and a processor (i.e., acomputer) for executing the stored control programs to control theinterfaces and the fabric and to provide automatic contact-distributionfunctionality. The switch and/or server typically include a networkinterface card (not shown) to provide services to the servicedtelecommunication devices. Other types of known switches and servers arewell known in the art and therefore not described in detail herein.

Referring again to FIG. 2, included among the data stored in the server110 is a set of contact queues 208 a-n and a separate set of agentqueues 212 a-n. Each contact queue 208 a-n corresponds to a differentset of agent skills, as does each agent queue 212 a-n. Conventionally,contacts are prioritized and either are enqueued in individual ones ofthe contact queues 208 a-n in their respective orders of priority or areenqueued in different ones of a plurality of contact queues thatcorrespond to a different priority. Likewise, each agent's skills areprioritized according to his or her level of expertise in that skill,and either agents are enqueued in individual ones of agent queues 212a-n in their order of expertise level or are enqueued in different onesof a plurality of agent queues 212 a-n that correspond to a skill andeach one of which corresponds to a different expertise level. Includedamong the control programs in the server 110 is a contact vector 216.Contacts incoming to the contact center are assigned by contact vector216 to different contact queues 208 a-n based upon a number ofpredetermined criteria, including customer identity, customer needs,contact center needs, current contact center queue lengths, customervalue, and the agent skill that is required for the proper handling ofthe contact. Agents who are available for handling contacts are assignedto agent queues 212 a-n based upon the skills that they possess. Anagent may have multiple skills, and hence may be assigned to multipleagent queues 212 a-n simultaneously. Furthermore, an agent may havedifferent levels of skill expertise (e.g., skill levels 1-N in oneconfiguration or merely primary skills and secondary skills in anotherconfiguration), and hence may be assigned to different agent queues 212a-n at different expertise levels. Call vectoring is described inDEFINITY Communications System Generic 3 Call Vectoring/Expert AgentSelection (EAS) Guide, AT&T publication no. 555-230-520 (Issue 3, Nov.1993). Skills-based ACD is described in further detail in U.S. Pat. Nos.6,173,053 and 5,206,903.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the gateway 158 can be Avaya Inc.'s, G250™,G350™, G430™, G450™, G650™, G700™, and IG550™ Media Gateways and may beimplemented as hardware such as via an adjunct processor (as shown) oras a chip in the server. The first telecommunication devices 134-1, . .. 134-N are packet-switched and can include, for example, IP hardphonessuch as the Avaya Inc.'s, 1600™, 4600™, and 5600™ Series IP Phones™, IPsoftphones such as Avaya Inc.'s, IP Softphone™, Personal DigitalAssistants or PDAs, Personal Computers or PCs, laptops, packet-basedH.320 video phones and conferencing units, packet-based voice messagingand response units, and packet-based traditional computer telephonyadjuncts.

The second telecommunication devices 138-1, . . . 138-M arecircuit-switched. Each of the telecommunication devices 138-1, . . .138-M corresponds to one of a set of internal extensions Ext1, . . .ExtM, respectively. These extensions are referred to herein as“internal” in that they are extensions within the premises that aredirectly serviced by the switch. More particularly, these extensionscorrespond to conventional telecommunication device endpoints servicedby the switch/server, and the switch/server can direct incoming calls toand receive outgoing calls from these extensions in a conventionalmanner. The second telecommunication devices can include, for example,wired and wireless telephones, PDAs, H.320 video phones and conferencingunits, voice messaging and response units, and traditional computertelephony adjuncts. Exemplary digital telecommunication devices includeAvaya Inc.'s 2400™, 5400™, and 9600™ Series phones.

It should be noted that the invention does not require any particulartype of information transport medium between switch or server and firstand second telecommunication devices, i.e., the invention may beimplemented with any desired type of transport medium as well ascombinations of different types of transport media.

The packet-switched network 162 can be any data and/or distributedprocessing network, such as the Internet. The network 162 typicallyincludes proxies (not shown), registrars (not shown), and routers (notshown) for managing packet flows.

The packet-switched network 162 is in (wireless or wired) communicationwith an external first telecommunication device 174 via a gateway 178,and the circuit-switched network 154 with an external (wired) secondtelecommunication device 180 and (wireless) third (customer)telecommunication device 184. These telecommunication devices arereferred to as “external” in that they are not directly supported astelecommunication device endpoints by the switch or server. Thetelecommunication devices 174 and 180 are an example of devices moregenerally referred to herein as “external endpoints.”

In a preferred configuration, the server 110, network 162, and firsttelecommunication devices 134 are Session Initiation Protocol or SIPcompatible and can include interfaces for various other protocols suchas the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol or LDAP, H.248, H.323,Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP, IMAP4, ISDN, E1/T1, and analogline or trunk.

It should be emphasized that the configuration of the switch, server,user telecommunication devices, and other elements as shown in FIG. 1 isfor purposes of illustration only and should not be construed aslimiting the invention to any particular arrangement of elements.

As will be appreciated, the central server 110 is notified via LAN 142of an incoming contact by the telecommunications component (e.g., switch130, fax server, email server, web server, and/or other server)receiving the incoming contact. The incoming contact is held by thereceiving telecommunications component until the server 110 forwardsinstructions to the component to forward or route the contact to aspecific contact center resource, such as the IVR unit 122, the voicemail server 126, the instant messaging server, and/or first or secondtelecommunication device 134, 138 associated with a selected agent. Theserver 110 distributes and connects these contacts to telecommunicationdevices of available agents based on the predetermined criteria notedabove. When the central server 110 forwards a voice contact to an agent,the central server 110 also forwards customer-related information fromdatabases 114 to the agent's computer work station for viewing (such asby a pop-up display) to permit the agent to better serve the customer.The agents process the contacts sent to them by the central server 110.This embodiment is particularly suited for a Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) environment in which customers are permitted to use anymedia to contact a business. In a CRM environment, both real-time andnon-real-time contacts must be handled and distributed with equalefficiency and effectiveness.

The contact center, in one configuration, includes an automated instantmessaging server as another server 124. When a customer initiatescontact with the contact center 100 using instant messaging, a newinstant messaging thread is initiated by the customer. As will beappreciated, instant messages are stand-alone messages, and threading(or associating instant messages with data structures associated with aninstant messaging session between a customer and an agent) occurs at theapplication level. The association is typically effected by pairing anelectronic address (e.g., telephone number) of the customer'scommunication device with an electronic address (e.g., telephone number)of the agent's communication device in a manner similar to that used fora voice call. The instant messaging server can be configured to send anautomated response, such as “Please wait while I connect you with anagent” and/or to send the instant message to an automated interactiveresponse unit for data collection. The instant messaging serversubsequently notifies the server 110 of the existence of a new instantmessaging contact, and the server 110 decides whether a suitable (human)agent is available. If an agent is available, then the server 110instructs the instant messaging server to redirect the instant messagingconversation to that available agent's communication device 134-1 . . .N. The server 110 routes, substantially in real-time, subsequent instantmessages from the agent's communication device to the customer'scommunication device and from the customer's communication device to theagent's communication device. Additional details on instant messagecapable contact centers are discussed in copending U.S. application Ser.No. 10/787,922, filed Feb. 25, 2004, entitled “Using Business Rules forDetermining Presence”, which is incorporated herein by this reference.

According to the invention, included among the programs executing on theserver 110 are an agent and contact selector 220 and contact manager232. The selector 220 and manager 232 are stored either in the mainmemory or in a peripheral memory (e.g., disk, CD ROM, etc.) or someother computer-readable medium of the center 100. The selector andmanager collectively effect an assignment between available contacts ina queue and available agents serving the queue in a way that tends tomaximize contact center efficiency. The selector 220 uses predefinedcriteria in selecting an appropriate agent to service the contact. Themanager 232 assigns services priorities to contacts and, as part of thisfunction, identifies contacts as disconnected or transitory contacts anddetermines whether such contacts merit special treatment. The manager232 provides instructions to the selector 220 to effect the specialtreatment.

Identifying a contact, as a transitory contact, is normallyself-evident. An abandon, or pre- or mid-service, disconnection of avoice call, before service is completed, is an obvious transitorycontact. Suspension of an instant message session may or may not qualifyas a transitory contact. If a customer is still shown to the servicingagent as being online or “present” but is not responding, it is notclear whether the customer has decided to suspend the contactindefinitely or is responding to other instant message threads or isotherwise occupied or unable to respond. Determining the Quality ofService (“QoS”) of the instant messaging channel(s) can provide anindication of the contact state, or intention of the customer.

The contact manager 232, based on one or more selected criteria,determines whether a transitory contact is entitled to special treatmentby the contact center. Special treatment includes holding the transitorycontact's position in queue, scheduling a call-back on the same channelbefore the position is eligible for delivery to an agent for servicing,providing the transitory contactor with a favored position in queue ifthe contactor calls back within a selected period of time, providing atransitory contactor with a wait time allowance if the contactor callsback within a certain period of time, retaining data received from thecontactor during the transitory contact in memory for a specified periodof time in the event of a recontact, and contacting the transitorycontactor on another channel.

Holding the transitory contact's position in queue effectively providesthe transitory contactor with a virtual queue position. Aftertermination of the transitory contact, the contactor can recontact orreconnect to the contact center and obtain his or her queue positionreflecting advancements during the termination of the contact and therecontact. For example, if the contactor was fifteen positions from thehead of the queue when the transitory contact terminated and tenenqueued contacts were serviced from the queue during the time betweenthe termination and recontact by the transitory contactor, the recontactwould be placed in a queue position that was five positions from thehead of the queue. Assuming that the contactor does receive the virtualqueue position, he or she could have other types of special treatmentapplied upon the maturity of the virtual queue position to a specifiedqueue position such as the “next call for deliver” or ncfd queueposition. For instance, further advancement in the queue could beretarded for an administrable time to afford the contactor more time toreclaim the position which would subsequently commence normaladvancement upon recontact. Alternately, upon maturation to a specifiedqueue position, such as the ncfd+1 queue position, the virtual queueposition could also be moved backwards in the queue or transferred toanother queue established for the purpose of queuing mature transactionspending recontact.

Scheduling a call-back before the transitory contact's queue position iseligible for delivery to an agent for servicing provides the transitorycontactor with immediate service when the contact-center initiatedcontact is answered by the transitory contactor. Instead of waiting forthe queue position to be ready for delivery to an agent, the contactcenter predicts, based typically on the virtual queue position and theservicing environment, when an agent will be available to service thecontact center initiated (re)contact, or “call-back”, and initiates thecall-back an optimized time before delivering the contact to the agent,before or when the virtual queue position reaches a selected positionrelative to the head of the queue, within a selected period of time ofthe virtual queue position being at the head of the queue, or when theestimated wait time reaches a predetermined value. As will beappreciated, the trigger for initiating a call-back to the contactordepends on the rate at which the work items or transactions enqueuedbetween the work item and the head of the queue are serviced. To avoidcontact center resources waiting for the outbound contact to beanswered, the time at which the outbound contact is initiated issynchronized with the projected rate of servicing of each work item andthe number of intervening work items. This provides the advantage ofdelivering only answered or active contacts to the agent, or notdelivering contacts that are unanswered by the person requesting thecall-back (e.g., the person left the premises prior to the call-back).In the latter situation, the contact center would need to set up an IVR(or some form of automated system or interactive response unit) tointeract with the called back party. The IVR, when the call-back isanswered, could inform the contactee of the fact that the virtual queueposition is now ready for servicing and to hold while the contact isconnected or directed to an agent. It may also include an estimate ofthe wait time until the contact is serviced by an agent and/or verifythat the contactee is the same as the person requesting the call-back.

Providing the transitory contactor with a favored position in queue ifthe contactor calls back within a selected period of time permits thetransitory contactor to voluntarily or involuntarily terminate thecontact and, within the selected period of time, call-back and obtain abetter queue position than if he had contacted the contact center forthe first time after the selected period of time. The queue position maybe the same as the virtual queue position. It may also be at a lower orhigher queue position.

Providing a transitory contactor with a wait time allowance if thecontactor calls back within a certain period of time is another way toprovide a favored queue position to the contactor. However, the amountof the wait time allowance could be related directly or inversely to theamount of time between the contact termination and call-back. Forexample, if the amount of time is less than a first threshold thecontactor would receive allowance for a first wait time, and, if theamount of time is less than a second threshold but more than the firstthreshold, the contactor would receive allowance for a second wait time.The second wait time may be more or less than the first wait time.

Retaining data received from the contactor during the transitory contactin memory for a specified period of time in the event of a recontact isparticularly useful in a Web setting. For example, if a contactor has ashopping cart or basket containing various items and the contact isterminated before the electronic order can be processed the contents ofthe shopping cart or basket can be maintained in memory. In this way, ifthe contactor recontacts the Web site within a selected period of timeafter the termination, he or she could be provided with a displayrequesting whether or not the contactor wishes to proceed with theprocessing of further revisions (additions, deletions, or changes) tothe order. Alternatively, a message, such as a Web page, email, instantmessage, and the like could be forwarded to the customer indicating thatthe order is ready for processing if the customer reconnects to the Website. The shopping cart can also be available to an agent if thecustomer reconnects via a different media, such as voice. The scenariomay be a bad connection (e.g., slow) and the person wants to switch tovoice. Rather than having to specify the order that was partiallycompleted on line, the agent would have the ability to use the orderinformation, previously provided by the customer, to complete the order.Many orders are never processed on the Web due to involuntary (orvoluntary) terminations and an unwillingness by the user to spend thetime to re-input the electronic order.

Contacting the transitory contactor on another channel can range fromcalling a cellular phone contactor back on a wired phone, calling acontactor using a packet-switched connection back on a circuit-switchedconnection, and sending the contactor an email, instant message, page,and the like indicating that the system noticed an abandon and inquiringif the contactor is still in need of assistance. If the contactor is inneed of assistance, various further contact options can be provided tothe contactor, which can include special treatment offers.

The selected criteria used to determine whether a contact is atransitory contact and/or whether to afford a contactor specialtreatment and/or the type of special treatment are typically based onone or more of (a) contactor information, (b) the destination of thecontact, (c) the channel/communication medium used by the contact, (d)information identifier or II digits, (e) Quality of Service or QoSmetrics for the transitory contact, and (f) the contact center state(e.g., workload/agent availability).

The contactor information refers to information relating to thecontactor, including without limitation the customer identity, theassigned customer class (gold, silver, bronze, etc.) or value, the saleshistory of the customer, the potential revenue realizable fromcompletion of the transitory contact, the interaction history with thecustomer, the purpose of the customer's contact, the degree ofcompletion of the contact when terminated, the state of the transitorycontact, and the like.

The destination of the contact refers to the contact center address towhich the transitory contact is directed. By way of example, if thecontact is directed to sales as opposed to service personnel specialtreatment may be appropriate.

One channel/communication medium, such as wirelesschannels/communication media, may receive special treatment or differenttypes of special treatment over other different channels/communicationmedia, such as wired channels/communication media. InformationIdentifier digits identify the type of calling party (e.g., cell phoneuser, pay phone user, jail phone user, etc.).

The Information Identifier or II digits are normally received duringcall setup. The Quality of Service refers to the transmissioncharacteristics end-to-end for the transitory contact, such as availablebandwidth, maximum end-to-end delay (packet latency), maximum end-to-enddelay variation (jitter), and packet/cell loss. QoS metrics can beobtained by techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Theycan, for example, be obtained, by measurement techniques, by the server110 or an intermediate node, from session signaling (such as Real-TimeTransport Protocol), and from monitoring local de jitter or playoutbuffers. When QoS metrics indicate a poor QoS, suspended instantmessaging sessions, for example, can be assumed to be involuntary andunintentional. In response, an instant message could be sent providingthe customer with instructions to obtain special treatment.

Finally, contact center state can be an important factor in determiningwhether to provide a transitory contact or special treatment. Duringperiods of heavy contact center workload and/or low agent or resourceavailability, special treatment offerings and/or options may be morelimited (or even eliminated) than during periods of light workloadand/or high agent or resource availability.

The decision to grant special treatment is typically based on aweighting of these criteria. For example, when a high valued customerhas a transitory contact a call-back may be scheduled regardless of thechannel, called destination, II digits, QoS or contact center state.When a transitory contact channel is via a wireless cellular phone orhas one or more QoS characteristics outside of selected quality(acceptable) thresholds, special treatment may be provided to thecontactor regardless of the customer information, called destination orcontact center state, based on the assumption that the termination wasinvoluntary or voluntary due to the poor quality of the connection orhigh airtime costs from waiting for servicing. Regarding airtime costsfor example, a long distance call by a cell phone user, if abandoned, isindicative of a transitory contact abandoned due to high airtime costs.Caller identification information can be captured by the server toidentify long distance calls. Such information would includeinternational dialing digit (e.g., international access code), countrycode, and area code. Special treatment might, for example, be given totransitory contacts or contacts generally from long distance cell phoneusers (international and/or national long distance) but not from local(non-long distance) cell phone users. In one configuration, specialtreatment, for transaction initiators within a common class or type ofcustomers (e.g., gold, silver or bronze customers) is provided to longdistance cellular calls (based on one or more of international accesscode, country code, and area code) when compared to less expensive(e.g., local) cellular calls; that is, when a first cellular call islong distance and a second cellular call is not and the calls arereceived at substantially the same time, the first cellular call isprovided with special treatment simply because it is long distance andnot due to other factors, such as customer identity. In another example,special treatment is accorded international long distance cellular callsbut not national long distance or local (non-long distance) cellularcalls. In other applications, special treatment is provided only whentwo or more criteria noted above are applicable.

In another configuration, the contact manager encourages transitorycontacts at the request of the customer by notifying the customer ofspecial treatment in the event of early termination. If a contact isenqueued, the contactor can hit a digit, icon, or other indicator tonotify the contact center of a need for assistance. Upon receipt of themessage, the contact center would prompt the contactor as to what actionis being requested, e.g., a call-back, a change in priority/urgency,etc. If the contactor elects a call-back, a special access code or keycould be provided to the contactor with an associated expiration time.The contactor can then call-back at a more convenient time and obtainspecial treatment by inputting the access code correctly. This is aproactive method of monitoring the needs of the contactor rather thanwaiting for a period of time before querying the contactor for a changein action (e.g., every three minutes asking the contactor if they wantto leave a message, request a call-back, wait in queue, or hang up andcall-back in at a later time).

The operation of the contact manager 232 is provided in FIG. 3.

In step 300, the manager 232 receives notification of the occurrence ofa selected event. The event can be the occurrence of a transitorycontact that was not authorized previously by the contact center inresponse to a request from the contactor or the receipt of a request,such as a touchtone or DTMF digit, from an enqueued contactor to receivespecial treatment, or the early disconnection of an enqueued contactwithout loss of assigned service priority.

In decision diamond 304, the manager 232 determines whether thecontactor is entitled to receive special treatment. As noted above, thisdetermination is made using one or more of (a) contactor information,(b) the destination of the contact, (c) the channel/communication mediumused by the contact, (d) II digits, (e) QoS metrics for the transitorycontact, and (d) contact center state.

When the contactor is not entitled to receive special treatment, thecontact is processed normally in step 308. For a transitory contact,normal processing means to do nothing further respecting the transitorycontactor/contact. For a contactor requesting special treatment, thecontact center may not offer the contactor special treatment at all oronly specific types of special treatment, such as a contact centerinitiated call-back or a virtual queue position.

When the contactor is entitled to receive special treatment, themanager, in decision diamond 312, determines whether the selectedcontact is a transitory contact or an enqueued contactor's request forspecial treatment. In other words, the manager determines whether thetriggering event in step 300 is the prior unauthorized disconnection ofan enqueued contact or the receipt of a signal from a currently enqueuedcontactor requesting special treatment. In the latter case, the manager232 proceeds to step 316 and provides the contactor with an access codeand access code expiration time. As noted above, the access codeprovides the contactor with the opportunity to disconnect the contactand receive special treatment when a later contact is initiated with thecontact center before expiration of the code. In the former case, themanager proceeds to decision diamond 320.

In decision diamond 320, the manager 232 determines whether thecontactor (responsible for the transitory contact) has initiated acall-back (or a second contact by the same or different channel) to thecontact center. The contactor information in the database 114 or apresence server or service can include a listing, for the contactor, ofthe electronic address of each associated endpoint or communicationdevice associated with the contactor. If the contactor (responsible forthe transitory contact) has not called back, the manager, in decisiondiamond 324, determines whether the predetermined period for thecontactor to use the call-back option is over. This period is typicallymeasured from the time of the termination for a transitory contact butmay be the point in time at which the virtual queue position associatedwith the transitory contactor reaches a selected queue position or aselected time of day. As will be appreciated, the contact center willtrack the number of permitted call-backs that are expected to bereceived within a selected period of time and attempt to attribute thecall-backs by assigning different durations or expiration times. Thetime period may end before or after the queue position of the transitorycontact reaches the head of the queue. In any event if the period hasnot yet expired, the manager returns to and repeats decision diamond 320after a suitable time out period.

If the call-back period has expired, the manager 232, in decisiondiamond 328, determines whether a call-back, on the same or a differentchannel, is to be scheduled by the contact center. If it is not to beschedule, the manager 232 proceeds to step 300 to await the occurrenceof the next selected event. In other words, the transitory contactor hasabandoned his or her right to receive special treatment. If thecontactor calls back, the contact will appear as a new contact. If thecall-back is to be scheduled, the manager 232 in step 332 schedules thecall-back for the outbound dialer 128 and proceeds to step 300.

Returning again to decision diamond 320, when the customer has calledback the manager 232 proceeds to decision diamond 336, where the manager232 determines if the contactor's time to receive special treatment hasexpired. If the time has expired, the manager 232 proceeds to step 308.In step 308, the manager 232 instructs the selector 220 to process thecontact normally (or the same as other incoming contacts, whichservicing can include waiting in queue at the queue tail). If the timehas not expired, the manager proceeds to steps 340 and 350 and providesspecial treatment to the second contact initiated by the transitorycontactor. The contactor is notified of the special treatment. Forexample, upon reconnecting or resuming the contact, the contactor isprovided with an announcement, such as a voice announcement, or aninstant message, welcoming him or her back, providing the estimated waittime to servicing, and/or prompting the contactor for the next desiredaction (e.g., leave a message in voice mail, wait in queue, set up afurther call-back by the contactor, schedule a call-back by the contactcenter, etc.).

A number of variations and modifications of the invention can be used.It would be possible to provide for some features of the inventionwithout providing others.

For example, the contactor can be notified of his or her right toreceive special treatment when the initial contact is received andbefore termination. The notification can be a message such as “We haveidentified you as calling from a cell phone. In case of a drop, feelfree to call-back within 3 minutes to maintain your position in queue.You may also choose at this time to be called back shortly before anagent is available to assist you.”

There could be multiple recontact periods or thresholds with variousassigned privileges and benefits. By way of illustration, upon or afterthe expiration of a first threshold (without a further contact by thecustomer who terminated the initial contact prematurely) an alternatechannel/media, such as email, or instant messaging may be used toprovide the user with a custom destination (i.e., Universal ResourceLocator or URL, phone number, IP address, etc.) for the caller to go toand reclaim the expired privileges based on providing certaininformation, possibly a key, access code, or some identification (suchas phone number or some combination thereof) known to or previously tothe customer by the contact center. Correct entry of the informationcould result in reinstatement of expired privileges, for instance,associated with a new (administrable) queue position established ontheir behalf. The new queue position may be the same as or differentfrom a virtual queue position originally assigned to the initialcustomer contact. Alternatively, the permission could be granted beforea contact has been made by the customer. For example, a mass emailing toselected customers or sets of customers could provide the privilege of aqueue position under administrable circumstances, such as in the eventof premature termination of a contact, based on the simple acceptance ofthe offer. This variation allows a non-realtime communication modality,such as email, to reserve the special privilege on a different real-timemedia, such as a live voice communication or instant message. Theprivilege could also be scheduled or “reserved” using this samemechanism.

The server may use a work assignment algorithm that does not use aqueue. In that event, the contact would have associated contactinformation, such as how long the contact has been waiting, thecontact's priority, the contact's media channel, and the contact'sbusiness value. The contact is handled based on the known contactinformation.

The server and/or switch can be a software-controlled system including aprocessing unit (CPU), microprocessor, or other type of digital dataprocessor executing software or an Application-Specific IntegratedCircuit (ASIC) as well as various portions or combinations of suchelements. The memory may be a random access memory (RAM), a read-onlymemory (ROM), or combinations of these and other types of electronicmemory devices.

The present invention may be implemented as software, hardware (such asa logic circuit), or a combination thereof.

The present invention, in various embodiments, includes components,methods, processes, systems and/or apparatus substantially as depictedand described herein, including various embodiments, subcombinations,and subsets thereof. Those of skill in the art will understand how tomake and use the present invention after understanding the presentdisclosure. The present invention, in various embodiments, includesproviding devices and processes in the absence of items not depictedand/or described herein or in various embodiments hereof, including inthe absence of such items as may have been used in previous devices orprocesses, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and\orreducing cost of implementation.

Moreover though the description of the invention has includeddescription of one or more embodiments and certain variations andmodifications, other variations and modifications are within the scopeof the invention, e.g., as may be within the skill and knowledge ofthose in the art, after understanding the present disclosure. It isintended to obtain rights which include alternative embodiments to theextent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalentstructures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or notsuch alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publiclydedicate any patentable subject matter.

1-22. (canceled)
 23. A method, comprising: (a) receiving, by a contactcenter, a first communication from a first transaction initiator. (b)determining, by a processor executable contact manager, that the firstcommunication is a long distance cellular call; and (c) providing, bythe contact manager, the first communication with special treatmentrelative to a second communication received from a different secondtransaction initiator, the second communication being receivedsubstantially at the same time as the first communication and being alocal cellular call and wherein the first and second transactioninitiators are otherwise entitled to a common service priority.
 24. Themethod of claim 23, wherein the special treatment is at least one of thefollowing: (E1) providing, by the contact manager and compared to thesecond communication, the first communication with a higher servicepriority; and (E2) providing, by the contact manager, the firstcommunication, when compared to the second communication, with a waittime allowance.
 25. A computer readable medium comprising processorexecutable instructions, that, when executed, perform the steps of claim23.
 26. A contact center, comprising: a processor executable contactmanager operable to: receive a first communication from a firsttransaction initiator; determine that the first communication is a longdistance cellular call; and provide the first communication with specialtreatment relative to a second communication received from a differentsecond transaction initiator, the second communication being receivedsubstantially at the same time as the first communication and being alocal cellular call and wherein the first and second transactioninitiators are otherwise entitled to a common service priority.
 27. Thecontact center of claim 26, wherein the special treatment is providing,compared to the second communication, the first communication with ahigher service priority.
 28. The contact center of claim 26, wherein thespecial treatment is providing the first communication, when compared tothe second communication, with a wait time allowance.
 29. Anon-transient and tangible computer readable medium comprising processorexecutable instructions, that, when executed, perform at least thefollowing steps: receiving a first communication from a firsttransaction initiator, determining that the first communication is along distance cellular call; and providing the first communication withspecial treatment relative to a second communication received from adifferent second transaction initiator, the second communication beingreceived substantially at the same time as the first communication andbeing a local cellular call and wherein the first and second transactioninitiators are otherwise entitled to a common service priority.
 30. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the special treatment isproviding, compared to the second communication, the first communicationwith a higher service priority.
 31. The contact center of claim 29,wherein the special treatment is providing the first communication, whencompared to the second communication, with a wait time allowance. 32.The method of claim 24, wherein the special treatment is providing,compared to the second communication, the first communication with ahigher service priority.
 33. The method of claim 24, wherein the specialtreatment is providing the first communication, when compared to thesecond communication, with a wait time allowance.